


Best Years

by lrhaboggle



Category: Maleficent (2014)
Genre: Anger, Betrayal, Disney, Forgiveness, Hurt, Love, Lover - Freeform, Musing, Queen - Freeform, Redemption, Revenge, Stolen Time, Time - Freeform, Vengance, War, best years - Freeform, daughter - Freeform, goodness, mother - Freeform, no diaval - sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:13:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14242017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lrhaboggle/pseuds/lrhaboggle
Summary: Stephan is dead but Maleficent still wants revenge. After all, he had taken away the best years of her life so it was only fair she did the same. Or maybe she had already. Come to think of it, maybe her ultimate punishment against him had already passed and it only took her this long to see it. Maybe her punishment had been far worse than anything he had done to her.





	Best Years

Maleficent stood over the pathetic pile of rocks that marked King Stephan's grave. The man had been dead for almost half a year now and the whole kingdom was still rejoicing. Stephan, though king, had been secretly despised by his people. His selfishness blinded him and brought about so much suffering to everyone who knew him. They did not miss him and not a single tear was shed when his corpse was discovered lying on the ground just outside the castle walls and right below one of the tallest towers. Instead, the kingdom was still in relief, finally able to recover from their tyrant and all of the suffering his ambitions had brought about. Their new leader, the king's daughter, couldn't have been any more different from him if she tried. She was kind, gentle, caring, selfless, calm and intelligent. Where King Stephan was anger, impulsiveness and destruction, his daughter, Aurora, was kindness, peace and healing.

Maleficent smiled at the thought. It did her aged heart well to know how different Aurora was from Stephan. She was thriving where he had been decaying. Already, both the human and the fairy kingdoms had managed to recover and reunite. Well, sort of. There was still wariness on either side but the warring had ended and Aurora was working hard every day to finally bring true peace about the kingdom that her predecessors had torn apart. In fact, Maleficent was pretty sure the young queen was currently out and about in the recovering human kingdom's largest town, busily showing them some of the marvelous creatures that lived in Maleficent's fairy kingdom. It was her way of trying to get the humans to understand that fairies could be quite friendly. Though the humans still had not entirely taken to Maleficent, but she couldn't blame them. She had, after all, been part of the reason there were two kingdoms instead of one. She had torn the bond between the land and helped sow the seeds of discord and war. It mirrored her own relationship with Stephan.

Once upon a time, the two had been friends. Lovers, even, and Maleficent had truly loved that human boy, but it was not mutual. As much as Stephan might have loved Maleficent, he loved himself just a little bit more and that was what brought the whole world crashing down. Now, Maleficent didn't regret what happened to Stephan, nor did she regret doing what she did to him, but she did feel a little bad for all the innocent lives her quarrel with him had caused. And she was referring to lives on both sides of this conflict, Aurora among them. Maleficent shook her horned head. In hindsight, cursing Aurora to a premature death had been nothing compared to what Stephan had already done to her, but she had been so lost to anger, hate and vengeance that she did not see a human life full of promise and thoughts all its own, she only saw a pawn, another way to get Stephan to suffer. He had taken the best years of her life and literally tainted them the moment he betrayed her by drugging and attacking her in her sleep. He had take the best years of her life the moment he stole her wings and left her for dead. He had taken the best years of her life because he had basically solidified Maleficent's fears that they would never get their happily ever after together. He had taken the best years of her life because she spent the next 16 of them plotting her revenge and missing out on everything life had to offer her. He had taken the best years of her life and she, desiring revenge, vowed to do the same.

For those 16 years, even after cursing Aurora to an early grave, she continued to plot and plague. She attacked Stephan and all of his humans, whether they were fully supportive of him or not. She was determined to take the best years of his life away and she ended up ultimately succeeding. She took away the best years of his life by threatening him. She took away the best years of his life by attacking him. She took away the best years of his life by destroying his kingdom and his sanity. She took away the best years of his life by making him so crazy that he was too paranoid to enjoy what life might have had to offer him. She took away the best years of his life by destroying everything he held dear so that there was nothing left for him to have faith in. She took away the best years of his life by forcing him to spend years and years militarizing and trying to rebuild what she had destroyed. She took away the best years of his life by keeping him from ever being able to build up and grow. She took away the best years of his life by tormenting him in his dreams and by attacking him in his waking hours. She did not regret any of it either.

Sure, now she began to understand Stephan and maybe she even pitied him because he had suffered quite a lot, but she did not regret it because she still hadn't forgiven him for the torture he had placed upon her.

"Perhaps you are dead, but you still have a lot to answer for," she told the pile of stones. "Perhaps Aurora and the others have forgiven you in your passing, but I have not and I do not see why I should," she continued. "You hurt me more than words could ever describe and you took away the one thing I could never get back: time. It was only fair that you paid the same price, but you cannot suffer that loss anymore, dead as you are. But you certainly should still be alive because I was not finished. You took away my time, I wasn't through taking yours. I have not yet taken away the very best years of your life!"

The horned woman broke off, scowl fading slightly. Such bitter outbursts were habitual and as hard as she tried to overcome them, every once in awhile, she still would lose herself to the hatred within and would revert back into the scheming monster she used to be. She would still curse Stephan's name and dream up revenge plots against him simply because it was so wired into her now that she knew no other way of living.

"Fairy Godmother?" a soft, cheerful voice called out to the tall and mighty fairy. A smile involuntarily flickered onto her face and stretched to either of her sharp cheekbones. She would know that voice and that nickname anywhere.

"Hello, Beastie," she murmured softly as Aurora bounced happily over to her. "Come on, the people say they want to see you!"

"They want to see me?" Maleficent was genuinely surprised but Aurora nodded.

"They're still scared of you but they said they're willing to at least see you," she said.

"Well, that's progress," Maleficent remarked dryly.

"Isn't it?" asked Aurora, far more genuine in her happiness. Maleficent's dry smile softened. Her little Beastie always knew just how to cheer her up. But then Aurora realized where she and Maleficent were standing.

"Are you ok?" she asked, smile and voice fading.

"Yes," Maleficent replied, an unreadable expression on her pale face as she realized what caused this change in Aurora's mood.

"Are you still worried about him?" she asked, nodding to the pile of stones. She never called him father for she had not known him well enough to and after seeing what a madman he truly was, she wasn't sure she wanted to anyway. Although she understood that some of his anger was justified, after seeing him attacking Maleficent so ruthlessly, Aurora knew at once that this man could never be her father. It wasn't that he didn't understand, it was that he refused to. He refused to see that Maleficent had genuinely changed and that own stubbornness led to his literal downfall. Aurora could not cry for the man she never knew.

"No," Maleficent answered Aurora, her tone still flat and empty.

"Are you worried for him?" she asked next. It was a more dangerous question but Aurora knew she could ask it without any negative repercussions. It was just that, from what Maleficent told her, she truly had loved Stephan and Aurora wanted to know now if the ex-queen of the fairy kingdom missed him. It was only natural because, as bitter as they had been to each other, it wasn't easy to erase years and years of friendship.

"No," Maleficent repeated.

"Then may I ask why you are standing at his grave?" the new queen asked the older one.

"You may," Maleficent replied. "But I may not answer."

"I suppose I understand," Aurora sighed, then she reached out towards her protector and friend and rested a head against her long arm. The pair stood together in silence, just staring down at Stephan's petty grave. It was still more than he deserved. At last, though, Maleficent began to speak.

"I was just thinking," she said. "I was thinking about how we wasted so much time trying to get back at each other. We always said that we wanted to take away the best years of each other's lives just to avenge ourselves and look what that did to us," she paused, waving all around them. "By trying to take each other's time, we lost so much of our own and I bitterly regret it."

"You didn't know," Aurora whispered.

"But that's not the point. I know now and it wasn't even just my time or his. I took away the best years of so many other lives…" the fairy broke off, impossibly sad eyes staring into Aurora's soul.

"No you didn't," Aurora promised, knowing at once what that look meant. "You didn't take away anything from me."

"But I did!" Maleficent protested. "You could've grown up a princess instead of a peasant and you might have had real parents, not those three blithering idiots you called aunties!" the fairy scowled at the thought of Thistlewit, Knotgrass and Flittle. Aurora laughed a little for the same reason. It was true that those three fairies were probably the worst parents in the world, but it was clear that they really did love Aurora, they just had no idea how to display it because, unlike Maleficent, they never had a human friend to teach them such things. As Aurora continued to laugh, Maleficent could only stare. She failed to see what was so funny right now.

"Ok," the young queen said finally, once her laughter subsided. "I suppose you're right that those three weren't exactly the best parents," Maleficent scoffed but Aurora wasn't finished. "But they did try and, all things considered, my life wasn't that bad. Imagine what it might've been like if I had grown up here…" the girl stared up at the castle's still unforgiving walls and shivered.

"But if I hadn't done what I did, that would never have happened," the older queen followed Aurora's gaze up to the castle. "I took away the best years of your life just because I was trying so hard to take away the best years of his. I claimed to be against the selfishness of mankind, failing to see how very selfish I was being myself," Maleficent sighed sadly, looking back down.

"No you didn't," Aurora took Maleficent's hands in hers, enticing the fairy to meet her bright blue eyes. "You may have taken 16 years of my life but surely I have many more yet to come. Who says those ones cannot be the best years of my life? Who says that every year isn't the best year? They will be the best because I will make them so," she said.

"Oh, Beastie…" Maleficent could only say the girl's nickname because she was so astounded by Aurora's stubbornness.

"Besides," Aurora continued, still holding the woman's hands. "You may have taken away some years, but you gave me some in return!" she insisted.

"Have I?" asked Maleficent, Aurora nodded then she reminded the fairy of all the encounters they'd shared through Aurora's life, including the moment Maleficent really befriended Aurora by becoming her fairy godmother and allowing her to spend long nights exploring the world of the fairies. How could Maleficent say she had taken the best years of Aurora's life when she gave all of that in return? Leading the girl around her home and introducing her to every type of fairy the forest had to offer.

"And what about now?" Aurora asked. "You promised to stay by my side for the rest of my life even if I chose to spend it in the human kingdom. Isn't that giving me my years back?"

"I suppose," Maleficent finally began to see what Aurora was getting at. The girl beamed.

"See? You may have taken years, but you're giving them back now and the concept of having best years is too subjective. You might've saved me from the worst years of my life for all we know!" she cried.

"Ok, Beastie, ok. You win," Maleficent finally conceded. Aurora's smile grew.

"So you said the peasants wish to meet me?" the fairy asked, returning to the original subject.

"Oh, don't call them that!" Aurora pleaded. "They were only peasants because they didn't have anything else. Call them people. It's what they are, after all."

"Fine," Maleficent rolled her eyes just a little. As charming as Aurora's kindness was, sometimes it did get a little out of hand. "You said that the people wanted to see me?" she repeated.

"Yes," Aurora replied.

"Fine then, but I won't promise not to bite," Maleficent smirked.

"Godmother!" Aurora sighed, but she knew the fairy was joking. Sort of. With any luck, Maleficent would be able to keep down the temptation to scare the humans. Aurora had her fingers crossed. Maleficent saw the gesture and her smirk grew a little wider.

"Come on, then," she said. "Let's go eat- errr, meet the people," she took Aurora's hand to lead her away while the girl in question rolled her eyes as Maleficent's joke. Neither of them looked back even once at Stephan's grave.

Much later, however, once the sun was long gone from the sky, Maleficent found herself at Stephan's grave again. This time, though, it was for a new purpose.

"I think I have managed to exact my ultimate revenge against you," she told the pile of stones. "I think I did take away the very best years of your life and, you know, I am almost sorry for it, for what I have taken away from you is worse than what you took from me…" the fairy trailed off, dark eyes scanning the castle before settling upon one particular tower where she knew her goddaughter to be sleeping now. "Aurora said that the concept of "best years" was too subjective to measure, but I think I disagree," she continued, slowly turning her gaze back down to Stephan. "I know I have taken them from you and while I don't regret anything else that has happened, I do regret this. I am sorry, for I never imagined myself capable of ever finding a punishment cruel enough for you. I think I have found it now, though. I have taken away all of your years with Aurora and I can think of no better years than those."

With those last haunting words, the fairy queen took leave of the dead king and, with her massive wings spread to the stars, she flew back home to her own kingdom. She would be back for Aurora in the morning, just like always. And unlike Stephan, she would have the opportunity to see the young woman wake up, both tomorrow and for many mornings thereafter. Oh yes, the incoming years with Aurora would be the very best years of Maleficent's life and by stripping those years away from Stephan, she had managed to take away what would've been the very best years of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> AN: I loved this movie too much to not write at least one fic for it. There's just something so beautiful about mother-daughter bonds, especially this one. I'm sorry if you were hoping for a Diaval cameo, though. I wanted to add him in, but it felt too forced. This is mostly about Maleficent, after all, realizing that even though Stephan took so many years from her, in the end, she ended up taking more. Of course, it would be infinitely tragic to lose a child, but wouldn't it be worse for that child to end up living with someone else? I saw a theory that even kind of hinted at this, saying that part of the reason Stephan was so mad at Maleficent was because she had essentially taken Aurora away from him. He never had the chance to watch her grow up and some people found that infinitely more tragic than if Maleficent had just killed Aurora the day she was born.


End file.
